- [ ] My daughter and her fiancÚ purchased tickets to travel from Hawaii where they live to Ecuador for vacation over Christmas and New years. While in Ecuador she was splashed with hydrochloric acid on her face and body at a beach resort during a freak accident. My wife and I are physicians and were shocked by how this emergency was being handled by local health care providers and decided the best option to limit the degree of scaring to her face and body was to bring her home to Rhode Island as soon as possible to be dealt with the Burn Unit at Rhode Island Hospital. We contacted American and explained our desperate situation and an agent was able to get her on a partner flight due to leave in 2 hours. My daughter and her boyfriend were at the airport waiting for American Airlines to take payment over the phone via our credit card. The change from their ticket to Hawaii to come to Rhode Island was $2,500. When they were finally able to get the payment to go through my daughter and her boyfriend were told the flight was already closed. I immediately got back on the phone with both the partner airlines and American Airlines and both said there was nothing they could do. I complained that why did they take payment if they knew the flight was already closed and their response was that technically my daughter missed the flight.!!!!! When I asked them to investigate the time the payment was made they refused to give me that information and only kept repeating that they were placed on the flight in time but I told them that that information was useless because until payment was made they could not get on the flight and when payment was finally made the flight was closed. Then when I asked about getting them on the next flight which was about 10 hours later they said they could do it for the same amount $2,500 even though if I out right bought 2 one-way tickets I could get them on their own website for $1,500. The agent said I could do that but I might not get the $2,500 refunded. So in this desperate situation while we are trying to get injured people home for emergency medical treatment American is trying to make $1,000 not including the amount from their original tickets which cost $3,000 for the two round trip tickets Hawaii to Ecuador. I have seen some pretty bad situations but this has to be the worse and basically after complaining American Airlines refuses to provide the information requested to prove that THEY TOOK PAYMENT FOR FLIGHTS THAT WERE ALREADY CLOSED WHILE MY DAUGHTER WITH SECOND AND THIRD DEGREE BURNS IS IN TEARS BEGGING TO GET ON THIS FLIGHT SO SHE CAN GET HOME IN TIME (24 HOURS) TO HAVE TREATMENT PERFORMED. They have exposed themselves to a serious law suit both her in the U.S. and in Ecuador. I won't even mention how poorly their own customer service has mishandled this situation just repeating that they will refund the change fee and they think that this negligent behavior is resolved.Posted via Mobile Device